The National Student Clearinghouse® Research Center™regularly publishes research that supports education, workforce, and learner success. Our research offers objective data and insights about student enrollment, mobility, completion, and other important student outcomes that are visible only through the Clearinghouse data. Our nationwide network of 3,600 postsecondary institutions provides up-to-date student-level data that represents 97 percent of the postsecondary enrollment today. Our publications are to benefit and better inform the education community, policymakers, business leaders, and other community leaders.
COVID-19
Stay Informed with the Latest Enrollment Information
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s Monthly Update on Higher Education Enrollment
September 1, 2020
COVID-19
Transfer, Mobility, and Progress
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s Update on Transfer Students
Fall 2020
Publication Series
Persistence & Retention
The report is designed to help institutions understand first-year college persistence and retention patterns and identify disparities between different students, institutions, or states in this important early success indicator.
Last Published August 13, 2020
76%
First-time college students who persisted at any U.S. institution in their first year of college
Current Term Enrollment Estimates
Newly Updated! First-Look at the Effects of COVID-19 on College Enrollment
Last Published June 30, 2020
164,000
Decline in public college enrollments from a year ago
Yearly Success & Progress Rates
Year-by-year rates of persistence, transfer, completion, and stop-out can help states and institutions better identify effective intervention points to increase student success.
Last Published May 4, 2020
24%
Part-time beginning students no longer enrolled anywhere two years later
Undergraduate Degree Earners
Latest demographic and education credential profiles for students earning an undergraduate credential during the 2018-19 academic year, with a focus on first-time versus non-first-time graduates.
Last Published April 7, 2020
26%
New undergraduate credential earners in 2018-19 who already had one
Completing College
Provides a comprehensive overview of postsecondary completion trends nationally and by state. For all students who enter postsecondary education for the first time each year, it examines the diverse pathways the student traversed toward completion, as well as a degree or certificate completion rate within six and eight years of enrolling.
Last Published March 2, 2020
60%
The national 6-year college completion rate, counting all students at all institutions
Some College, No Degree
This report offers insights about students’ subsequent enrollments and completions, based on the most current national data that tracks individual students over time and across institutions and across state lines since the first Some College, No Degree report was released in 2014.
Last Published October 30, 2019
3.8M
Some College, No Degree students who re-enrolled in the past five years. Nearly 1 million completed.
High School Benchmarks
This year’s report examines the immediate college enrollment for high school graduating class of 2018, persistence for class of 2016, and completion for class of 2012. We continue to see large gaps between higher-income and low-income high schools on all fronts.
Last Published October 7, 2019
21%
College completion rate among graduates of high-poverty high schools, 32 percentage points lower than the rate for low-poverty schools
Tracking Transfer
Latest data update to the Tracking Transfer Report Series that focuses on the student mobility from two- to four-year institutions nationally. Student transfer outcomes for the 2012 cohort of first-time degree-seeking students are reported.
Last Published September 26, 2019
13%
Community college beginners earning a BA in six years
Upcoming Publications
SEPT 2020
Stay Informed
Fall Enrollment #1
SEPT 2020
Tracking Transfer
SEPT 2020
Time to Degree
Current Initiatives
Postsecondary Data Partnership
The Postsecondary Data Partnership is a nationwide initiative to help colleges and universities more efficiently gain a fuller picture of student progress and outcomes, meet various reporting requirements, and focus more of their resources on using data to help students.
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